The Treaty of Versailles

The Versailles Peace Treaty

The signing of this treaty was the end of the war.
Germany was forced to sign the treaty, or else it would face occupation by Allied troops.
A meeting was held in Versailles, in France.
The treaty was formed by presidents Lloyd George of Great Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of the United States.
Japan was also part of the making of the treaty but did not have much importance.

A picture of the four presidents. They are often called the "Big Four" or the "Peacemakers".
Small countries such as Belgium, and Russia which had internal revolutions weren't as important and didn't get to make changes in the making of the treaty.
Neither did the countries that had lost the war, namely Germany, Austria and Hungary.
The Versailles Treaty aimed to destroy Germany's economy to prevent another uprising of their military, and couldn't construct a reliable peace.
Germany would effectively be the only country blamed for The Great War.
This was very harsh and untrue and it meant that Germany had to pay for the damages alone.
This was somewhat justified as some countries such as Austria Hungary had dissolved.
Kaiser Wilhelm II took exile in Holland.
Imperial Germany was replaced by the Weimar Republic (which subsisted from 1919 to 1933).

German lost lots of territory from the Treaty of Versailles.
Polish Corridor, a coastal area between Eastern Prussia and Germany.
The Saar region, which had a powerful coal industry, was returned to French control for 15 years.
Demilitarization of the Rhineland (Rheinland in German), which was a region in between France and Germany.
This demilitarized area meant that Germany couldn't start a quick assault or prepare a defense in the area which didn't hurt Germany economically but weakened them.
Approximately 13% of German area were handed over.
Over six million Germans were left outside of Germany and became the territories of other countries such as Austria and Czechoslovakia.

France was very bitter after the war.
France was in great debt to the United States.
France applied huge reparation payments onto Germany (which they only paid back in 2010!)
American President at the time, Woodrow Wilson made a 14-point plan for improving relations in Europe.
This was attempted to be integrated into the Versailles treaty, although it wasn't implemented as the plan had intended.
For example the League of Nations was developed.
Germany faced great military restrictions.
The size of their military was limited at 100,000 soldiers.
They could use no modern weapons such as airplanes, tanks, submarines.
Conscription was banned.

The treaty left Germany's economy weak for the time.
Germany's military was greatly reduced in size and power.
Germans felt that the peace was shameful (the term Schandfrieden in German).
The treaty led to bitterness among the Germans.
It would have been better if the treaty had been fair towards Germany which was one of Europe's largest economic powers, allowing the economy of Europe to recover quicker.
Germany had been weakened by the treaty although it was in a situation where it could easily recover.
The treaty hadn't formed constructive peace either so it was unsuccessful in maintaining peace.